Wild and Wicked, page 1
Wild and Wicked
ITALIAN STALLIONS
BOOK FOUR
MARI CARR
Copyright © 2023 by Mari Carr
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Wild and Wicked
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
About the Author
Wild and Wicked
Gianna, queen of to-do lists, clean freak, organizer extraordinaire, has her future all figured out. Dream job at twenty-four, engaged at twenty-six, married at twenty-eight, first baby at thirty. And she’s on her way to achieving that…sort of. She has a job, though it’s not a dream, and she even thought she had her guy. Until he dumped her just short of that engagement ring deadline.
Enter Elio Moretti, king of the ice, the playboy hockey star who lives his life just one day at a time. When Gianna and Elio are trapped in his family’s cabin during a blizzard, the concept of opposites attract is put to the test. Until the tequila comes out.
Their steamy one-night stand throws Gianna’s original plan out the window—and now she only has nine months to come up with another one. Lucky for her, Elio is very good at thinking on his feet and calls a play that just might give her everything she wants.
Chapter One
Gianna was late. She’d debated not coming at all, but in the end, she decided she’d be better off spending this evening with her friends versus sitting in a too quiet, too empty apartment, alone with only her thoughts. Besides, there wasn’t a damn thing left in her place to clean.
She’d scrubbed every single solitary inch of it over the past three months. Ever since Sam Mannarino, her boyfriend for the past eleven—ELEVEN—years told her he thought their relationship had run its course and they should call it quits.
For the first couple of weeks after he’d packed up his stuff and moved out of the apartment they’d shared, she’d thought maybe he was just blowing off steam. After all, you don’t date someone for eleven years and not have a few fights or “we were on a break” moments that never lasted more than a week or two. But when he didn’t come back, didn’t respond to her occasional texts, and sent her one phone call straight to voicemail, she didn’t get depressed—she got fucking pissed off.
And that anger hadn’t abated until…
Until tonight.
“You late too?”
Gianna jumped slightly, so lost in her thoughts, she didn’t hear one of her best friends, Liza Moretti, walking up the porch steps behind her.
“Sorry,” Liza added, when she realized she’d scared her. “Thought you heard me.”
“I got held up. Last-minute shopping,” Gianna explained lamely, as Liza opened the front door to the house without knocking. Not that anyone would hear them if they did. The music emanating from the living room had hit a volume level that had the windows pulsating in time with the beat.
Gianna’s girlfriend, Keeley Gallo, had moved into this mansion with her boyfriends—plural—Gio and Rafe last fall, the three of them so over-the-top, sweetly in love, it gave Gianna a toothache.
Rafe had inherited the huge Gothic monstrosity—one they were all convinced was haunted by the ghosts of Rafe’s grandparents—and he and Gio were currently renovating it. They were living here while they did the work, but Keeley had eventually put her foot down, saying the mansion was too damn big to make their forever home.
So Gio and Rafe had formed a partnership and decided to go into business together. Their plan—a brilliant one, in Gianna’s mind—was to turn the mansion into an inn. Once it was ready to open for business, they were hoping to buy a reasonably sized house to settle down in.
Gianna had a degree in hotel management and, while she hadn’t brought up the subject yet, she was hoping to convince Gio and Rafe to let her run their haunted inn. She just needed to clean up her resume, practice her pitch, then pray they went for it…because her current job at a basic close-to-the airport hotel was mind-numbingly tedious and boring to the extreme, presenting her absolutely zero challenges.
She’d spent the better part of two hours this afternoon adding more twinkle lights to the foyer because there’d been nothing else to do. Too many more months there, and she would turn into a legit zombie.
A few weeks ago, Keeley had decided to throw a Christmas party, and it had been all her girlfriends had been able to talk about since she’d set the date for the bash. Keeley, a party girl from way back, loved nothing more than planning a menu, decorating, creating a guest list and a music playlist, then dancing the night away.
Gianna could get behind the lists part of the planning process because there was nothing she loved more than a good list. She currently had at least five different lists she was working off, at work and at home. But the rest…well…all she could see at the end of this event was a shit-ton of cleaning to do.
Which might not be a bad thing, now that she thought about it. Maybe she’d volunteer to come back tomorrow morning to help Keeley put the house back to rights.
“You made it!” Keeley yelled excitedly when she and Liza walked into the grand foyer. “Here,” she said, arms outstretched. “Give me your coats. I’ll stash them in the office.”
Gianna and Liza took off their coats and handed them over, both shaking a few flakes of snow from their hair. It was only flurrying, though weather forecasters were predicting a very snowy Christmas season.
Just the thought of the holidays made Gianna feel unnaturally tired. Maybe she was coming down with something. The idea of getting a cold felt more reassuring than admitting that what was really wrong with her was most likely depression.
This holiday was going to be a rough one, the first she’d ever had to spend alone. Growing up, she had always celebrated Christmas with Grandma Mary, who’d raised her. She and Sam had been seriously dating when her grandmother passed away, so since then, her holidays had been spent with his family, who’d always embraced her with welcome arms.
“Hey. I was starting to worry you two weren’t coming,” Penny Beaumont said as she ventured into the foyer.
“Oh my God. Don’t even get me started on why I’m late,” Liza said dramatically, flipping her chestnut-colored hair over her shoulder. “Matt Russo is a zit on the ass of humanity.”
They all might have laughed if Matt’s brother, Gage—and Penny’s fiancé—hadn’t chosen that moment to walk in.
Gage grinned. “I always figured he was a zit on the ball sac, but I like your version better. Allows both genders to feel the pain.”
Liza grimaced, her look only slightly apologetic.
Liza was a Moretti, Gage a Russo. Putting those names together was basically a recipe for disaster because the two families had hated each other since the beginning of time for some long-past slights. The current crop of Morettis and Russos were sort of hanging onto the grudge but only half-heartedly.
As evidenced by Gage’s presence here at the party.
Liza’s father, Cesare, and her nonno would flip their lids if they knew Gage was in attendance, which was why they hadn’t been informed. If there was one thing the Moretti kids were experts at, it was avoiding the wrath of the older generations.
For her part, Gianna didn’t give a crap what anyone’s last name was. She’d gotten to know Gage over the past few months since he and Penny became a couple, and she really liked him.
“So what did my dear big brother do?” Gage asked.
Liza scowled. “The Grinch insisted on a meeting with me. This evening. Like it couldn’t wait. FYI—it could have fucking waited. There was nothing he wanted to discuss that couldn’t have been said in January. Or in a stupid email. It’s the goddamn Saturday before Christmas. What’s wrong with that guy? Did he misplace his soul somewhere?”
Liza, typically good-natured, fun, and kind, had one hot button, and its name was Matt Russo, though her anger toward the man had nothing to do with the family’s war and everything to do with the man himself. Liza had recently landed her dream job as Executive Director of the Philadelphia Initiative—a foundation that worked to increase philanthropic donations in the city. Her friend loved everything about the gig, except Matt Russo, who served as the chairman to the board for the same foundation. It placed him and Liza in similar circles far too often for her friend’s comfort.
Gage lifted his hands in a “what can I say” manner. “Matt doesn’t do holidays. Or weekends. Every day is a workday in his world.”
“That’s sad,” Gianna mused as Keeley returned to the foyer.
“Why’s everyone still out here when the party’s in there?” Keeley pointed toward the living room, which was bursting at the seams with people.
“This is the only place we can talk and actually hear what the other person is saying,” Penny pointed out.
Keele y snorted. “I told Gio the music was too loud. Hey, Gio!” she yelled into the living room.
“Yeah?” he shouted back.
“Turn the music down. Nobody can talk.”
Gio shouted something in reply, but Gianna couldn’t hear it. Regardless, the volume of the music did dip down. A little bit.
Keeley’s eyes widened in exasperation. “I swear to God, the guy’s hearing is shit. Doesn’t bode well for the ‘growing old’ part of our relationship. I’m a brilliant conversationalist. How is he going to appreciate that if he can’t hear me?”
“Is it the conversation you want him to hear or the nagging?” Liza teased.
“I don’t nag,” Keeley replied. “Much.”
Everyone laughed. Gianna joined in, but her laughter was forced. She was rethinking her decision to come. Socializing, smiling, faking happy was going to take more energy than she had to give.
“Now…what were you guys talking about?” Keeley asked.
“We were just explaining why we were late,” Liza replied. “Or at least I was, and I can sum it up for you in two words. Matt Russo.”
Keeley groaned. “Ugh. What a douche.” Then she also recalled Gage’s presence. “Sorry,” she murmured.
Gage just grinned, unoffended. “I’m well aware of my brother’s reputation in this particular social circle.”
“Yeah, but…still.” Keeley quickly changed the subject. “Soooo…why are you late, Gianna?”
Gianna considered brushing the question off but decided against it. The reason she’d come to the party tonight was because she needed her friends. “I had to stop by the mall to pick up the last part of my boss’s Christmas present after work and I ran into Sam.”
“Oh,” Penny said, sympathetically. “That couldn’t have been easy.”
Gianna nodded, briefly glancing at Gage, who must have sensed her unease with his presence. She really liked Penny’s fiancé, but this conversation was going to be hard enough to have with her girlfriends.
Gage, mercifully astute, gave Penny a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’ll let you women chat. Toby and Rich have been holding up that back wall long enough, studying the damn quarters game. By now, they’ve probably worked out the physics behind it and are itching to give it a try. Time to draw my posse into the game.”
“You just called the nerd circle your posse,” Penny teased, grinning.
“That’s right,” Gage said unabashedly. “And I stand by it. Twenty bucks says I can have Toby rolling quarters off his ass into the glass by the end of the night.”
“Behave yourself.” Penny swatted her soon-to-be husband, looking at him with so much love, it physically hurt Gianna to witness.
Had she ever looked at Sam like that?
She and Sam had fallen in love in high school during their sophomore year. Gianna suspected that at some point, she had stared at Sam like he hung the moon, but after so many years together…the rush of first love had given way to comfortable companionship, something she’d, well…liked.
Sam hadn’t just been her boyfriend; he’d been her best friend. So when he left, he took a hell of a lot more than just his clothes, his old-school record collection, and stupid Star Wars Legos models. He’d taken her heart and her sounding board.
“You haven’t seen Sam since he moved out, have you?” Keeley asked, though Gianna’s friends all knew that. Somehow, Sam had found a way to erase himself completely from her world, ghosting her by not texting, not calling, and avoiding all their usual stomping grounds.
“No. I haven’t,” she confirmed.
No-nonsense Liza sliced one hand through the air. “Well, good then. It’s done. The Band-Aid is ripped off, so you don’t have to dread the first meeting anymore. How did it go?”
Gianna swallowed deeply. “Fine. I mean…” She shook her head. “Not fine. He was with a woman.”
Keeley’s shoulders fell. “Aw, babe. It’s been three months. You had to know he would move on.”
Her friends had been encouraging her to do the same. Trying to convince her that Sam’s leaving was a good thing because they’d been fighting too much and neither of them had been truly happy the last several months of their relationship. All of that was true.
But her being alone didn’t feel like a better thing. Not at all.
“I get that,” she said. “I really do. It’s just…”
This.
This was the part that was going to be hard to say. The part that had taken the anger she’d felt the past few months and morphed it into hardcore devastation. She could almost hear the shattered pieces of her broken heart crashing against each other inside her.
Which was weird. Because even she could admit that tonight should have only fueled her ire more.
“I was playing it cool,” Gianna said. “Proud of how strong I sounded. I asked him how he’d been, he said fine and introduced me to Emma. Then stupidly, for some reason, I asked if they were on a first date. I don’t know why I asked that, but I guess I was just looking for something to say.”
“What did he say?” Liza asked.
Gianna sighed sadly. “He didn’t answer because Emma beat him to the punch. She said no. Said they’d been dating since July.”
Liza frowned. “July?”
“But you two didn’t break up until…” Penny stopped talking.
“September,” Gianna finished for her. “Apparently Emma didn’t know about me, either.”
“He was cheating on you!” Liza said hotly. “The deceitful, no-good, piece-of-shit motherfucker. Did you call him out on it? Please tell me you fucking lit into him.”
Gianna shook her head. “I was too…God…stunned. I think I was waiting for Sam to correct her, but when I looked at his face, I saw it was true. Emma seemed to realize she’d said something wrong, but I could tell she didn’t know what. After that, Sam was anxious to get away, so the two of them said goodbye and that was it.”
While the anger Gianna had been carrying around since Sam dumped her had vanished, Liza appeared to have found plenty of it. “I can’t believe he did that to you. What the fuck is wrong with him?”
Gianna had no reply to that. She’d loved Sam with her whole heart. But more than that, up until this afternoon, she would have called him the most trustworthy guy on the planet. Even after the breakup. In eleven years, he’d never lied to her. Not once.
Or maybe the truth was, she’d never caught him in a lie.
He’d made a fool of her, and she hated him for that. But perhaps what hurt more was that she hated herself more for being so gullible, so stupid, so blind. If she told her friends how she felt, they’d tell her she was wrong, and maybe they’d be right.
It didn’t matter though.
It was still the way she felt. Right or wrong.
Emotion was rarely intelligent.
“You’re better off without him,” Keeley said. “I never liked him.”
Gianna couldn’t help it. She laughed. The first real one of the night. “You loved Sam. You spent years telling me how lucky I was to have such a great guy.” Keeley and Liza had spent most of their early twenties sludging through the online dating swamp, while Gianna had been shacked up in what she’d genuinely believed was premarital bliss with the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with.
So much for her Great Life Plan.
Sam had thrown a major monkey wrench into Gianna’s perfect life list.
Dream job at twenty-four, engaged at twenty-six, married at twenty-eight, first baby at thirty.
Sure, she didn’t exactly have her dream job, but at least she was employed. Now, here she was at twenty-six, and she sure wasn’t admiring the engagement ring she’d hoped Sam would give her on her last birthday. Instead, he’d given her a new Roomba vacuum cleaner, which probably should have shown her the handwriting on the wall.
And maybe it would have if she wasn’t such a clean freak and if her previous Roomba hadn’t gone on the fritz. At the time, she’d thought it was a great present, thoughtful, perfect.
